vatican

Take Discovery's knack for recreating real-life stories and combine it with documents from the Vatican and what do you get? 'The Exorcist Files.'

Yep, Discovery has teamed with the Catholic Church for a new series based on their investigations of hauntings and demonic possessions. According to Entertainment Weekly, the series will also feature interviews with religious experts and top Vatican officials, people who are rarely seen on TV.

"The Vatican is an extraordinarily hard place to get access to, but we explained we're not going to try to tell people what to think," Clark Bunting, president and general manager of Discovery, told EW. "The work these folks do, and their conviction in their beliefs, make for fascinating stories."

A few weeks ago Pope Benedict XVI had some good and bad things to say about today's mass media. On the one hand, he mentioned that media such as television have provided a great benefit to civilization with quality news services and wholesome entertainment. On the other, the Pope criticized much of the world's media as a destructive influence.

So, what better for the Vatican to counteract the pox that has fallen upon the media than to launch a television network of its own by the end of the year. Very few details have been released but, according to an article from the CBC, the proposed network will feature news and entertainment programming in seven languages. This new venture would be an addition to the existing satellite TV channels it operates which broadcast papal ceremonies and other events from the city state.

MTV's decision to start airing an animated series in Germany called
Popetown which features a corrupt Vatican and a childlike Pope who bounds around on a pogo stick is
already catching flak from some Catholic groups. The series was created two years ago for the BBC, which
banned it at the last minute over fear of controversy. Now MTV has courted even more controversy with a print
advertisement for the new series which shows Jesus descended from the cross and laughing in front of the TV, crown of
thorns still on his head. Despite threats of legal action, the series will still debut in Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland on May 3.